Who is the nation's favourite poet? That's the question the BBC is currently asking as part of its poetry season, and if you haven't already, you can cast your vote here until midday on 1 September (the winner will be announced on National Poetry Day on 8 October).

The 30-strong list of contenders was compiled in consultation with the Poetry Society and the Arts Council, and runs from Simon Armitage to Benjamin Zephaniah, taking in the living – Wendy Cope, Roger McGough, Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy – and the dead.

There's lots of great material provided – videos, readings, poems – so it's worth a look even if you don't fancy voting. But do vote! I feel horribly certain that we're going to end up with either Wordsworth or Kipling – when the BBC asked for the nation's favourite poem back in 1995, Kipling's If received twice as many votes as the second-placed poem, Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott. And neither of them do it for me: We Are Seven's sickly twee-ness wrecked Wordsworth for me; Kipling – love the prose, don't like the poetry.

Anyway, I want Gerard Manley Hopkins to win. I know he's got no chance, but he is my top poet of all time, ever since my poor, wonderful English teacher tried to explain The Windhover to a class of 15-year-olds. The teacher died of cancer while I was still at school and told me that he'd recite Spring and Fall – my favourite poem from my favourite poet – to himself while in hospital to keep his spirits up.

University introduced me to The Wreck of the Deutschland and its "wiry and white-fiery and whirlwind-swivellèd snow" and "soft sift/ In an hourglass" and "dappled-with-damson west", and to the terrifying dark sonnets ... I'm going to have to go and see if I can vote for Hopkins again.

What do you think? Which of these 30 deserves to be our nation's favourite – and who have they missed off the list?